Progress in the investigation of the longevity of Portland cement grout seal materials

The sealing of openings in underground repositories and the assessment of the potential for seal materials to perform acceptably for long periods of time are concerns shared by programs considering the deep disposal of nuclear waste. Two grouting materials, bentonite and portland cement, have been identified by many programs as likely candidate seal materials. As a part of Phase III of the Stripa Project, the longevity of both of these materials is being investigated in a series of coordinated laboratory, modeling, and field studies. Long-term performance is an important issue particularly for cement, since most solid phases in cement are metastable, and therefore it is likely that cement seal performance would degrade with time. In this investigation, geochemical and permeability modeling have been used together to estimate how long cement seals may be expected to perform acceptably. Analyses to assess cement degradation due to phase inversion and dissolution have been performed; for dissolution calculations, both slow flow and fast flow hydrologic systems have been analyzed to establish bounding conditions. Actual granitic terrain grounwater compositions ranging from fresh to saline have been used to calculate cement-groundwater interactions. A relationship between cement permeability and porosity has been developed based on empirical data. Changes in performance with time have been predicted by conservatively estimating hydrologic conditions at successive stages of post-closure repository history. For the conditions considered, preliminary results indicate that the single largest determinant of seal performance is the initial hydraulic conductivity of the cement. Based on this investigation, cement grout performance may be acceptable for very long periods of time (tens of thousands to millions of years) providing its initial conductivity is on the order of 10-12 m/s